The most surprising thing about Back To The Basics is that it's not a comeback, per se - Rich Homie Quan feels no need to re-shape his style to fit a new rap landscape. In fact, on first listen the tape sounds a tiny bit dated - there's no one that sounds quite like Quan, and his shine a couple years back was so all-encompassing that all subsequent work can't help but be of a part with it. Ubiquity can camouflage uniqueness. The rap game is changing so fast that the notion of permanence is nearly obsolete - thus, to have a style is to live forever in the moment of its maturation (and subsequently, disappear with its expiration).

I'm so content with the person I am, I can give a fuck about what you think about me, honestly bro.

Sometime in the last two years, Rich Homie Quan reached self-actualization. After a remarkable run of singles (plus an era-defining collaboration with Young Thug and, technically, Birdman) and despite repeated promises to never stop going in, he fell off the map nearly overnight. Out of action but probably still rich for life, Back To The Basics seems more like a self-improvement exercise than anything else, rich in introspection and devoid of the artifice that comes with, well, any commercial aspirations whatsoever. Quan uses the tape to reflect on his come-up, fall from grace, and the strains that the time in-between put on his relationships with friends, family, and God. It's his best work in years, and his first tape to transcend merely compiling tracks.

Highlights: Gamble, Never Made It, Da Streetz